page_title: Mikhailovsky Palace
section_title: The palace today
hierarchical_section_title: Mikhailovsky Palace / The palace today
caption_attribution_description: This is a photo of a cultural heritage object in Russia, number: 7810526000 This template and pages using it are maintained by the Russian WLM team. Please read the guidelines before making any changes that can affect the monuments database!
context_page_description: The Mikhailovsky Palace is a grand ducal palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is located on Arts Square and is an example of Empire style neoclassicism. The palace currently houses the main building of the Russian Museum and displays its collections of early, folk, eighteenth, and nineteenth century art.
  It was originally planned as the residence of Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich, the youngest son of Emperor Paul I. Work had not yet begun on the Mikhailovsky Palace, when Paul was overthrown and killed in a palace coup that brought Michael's elder brother to the throne as Alexander I. The new emperor resurrected the idea for a new palace by the time Michael was 22, and plans were drawn up by Carlo Rossi to develop a new site in Saint Petersburg. The palace, built in the neoclassic style, became the centrepiece of an ensemble that took in new streets and squares. It was lavishly decorated, with the interiors costing more than the main construction work. It was gifted to Grand Duke Michael and his new wife, Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, by the Emperor in 1825. The grand ducal family had comfortable apartments furnished to their individual tastes.
context_section_description: The Mikhailovsky Palace houses the main building of the Russian Museum and is used to display its collections of early artworks, and those from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Entrance and exits are through the lower floor, which contains the ticket offices, cloakrooms, shops, cafe, and other visitor facilities. The Rossi wing, the former Freylinskiy wing, displays nineteenth century art, and examples of Russian folk art.  Twentieth century art and temporary exhibitions are displayed in the Benois wing.  The former Manezhny wing was demolished by Vasily Svinin, with a new building constructed between 1900 and 1911, which now houses the Russian Museum of Ethnography, initially the Russian Museum's department of ethnography, but established as a separate museum in 1934. Between 2000 and 2002 the original decoration of the palace church was recreated.
caption: The palace as a museum. Paintings by Ivan Aivazovsky at left, and The Last Day of Pompeii by Karl Bryullov at right
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